Sept. 26, 2001

Media only: Public Information Officer (202)786-2875
Public only: 202-357-2700

Smithsonian Libraries' Digital Collection Offers Something for Collectors, Hobbyists, Museums, Researchers, even Lawyers

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL) has launched a new digital collection, which holds appeal for a broad range of interests, from hobbyists to historians. Sewing Machines: Historical Trade Literature in Smithsonian Collections is part of SIL's ever-growing compilation of online resources. The latest digital addition can be viewed at www.sil.si.edu/digital collections.

Sewing Machines features items produced by America's foremost sewing machine manufacturers of the 19th and early to mid 20th centuries, such as:

• advertisements
  
• price and parts lists
• sheet music
• patent information
• receipts
• product catalogs
• company letterheads and correspondence

The material on view spans the period between 1840 and 1976. A bibliography compiled by Barbara Suit Janssen, Museum Specialist in the Textile Collection of the National Museum of American History, Behring Center, provides a comprehensive list of resources dealing with the technical, sociological, and economic impact of sewing machines on American society. Fully digitized vintage price guides, technical manuals, and corporate correspondence aid auction houses in the authentication and appraisal of machines, allow museum curators, collectors, and scholars to trace the history of a particular sewing machine company, and, in broader terms, provide insight into the evolution of the American corporate identity.

"The collection documents America's past," notes Libraries' Director, Nancy E. Gwinn, "It brings together, in one place, more than a century's worth of the technological advances and commercial growth made by this segment of American industry. The collection has tremendous implications for researchers in search of primary resources to study the industrial revolution and for people interested in the history behind that machine in their grandmother's living room."

Rhoda S. Ratner, Head of SIL's History and Culture Department and the project's coordinator comments, "We knew this collection was a marvelous resource for sewing machine enthusiasts and historians around the world. Organizations like the International Sewing Machine Collectors Society as well as textile and technology museums across America find this an invaluable tool for tracking and appreciating merchandising strategies, mechanical innovations, and changing sewing techniques. What we didn't expect was the interest of law firms. Lawyers have mined the collection for information and evidence to argue cases involving labor disputes and civil suits."

Sewing Machines represents only one facet of SIL's extensive collection of manufacturers' trade literature and the first to be digitized. SIL holdings include over 300,000 commercial trade catalogs and a host of other related material representing over 30,000 companies. The photographs and images included in the collections offer important clues about period social conventions and cultural values. Distinguished authors and historians frequently wrote catalog copy, and notable artists often provided the illustrations.

Available 24 hours a day, SIL's Digital Collections make information available immediately to scholars, attorneys, and enthusiasts internationally. Other digital offerings from the Smithsonian Libraries include rare book selections from, among others, the Anthropology library, the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, and the Natural History library.

The Smithsonian Libraries is a 22 branch system with online exhibitions, rare books, and information services online at www.sil.si.edu. The library catalog is at www.siris.si.edu. The Libraries serves the Smithsonian and the public with information and reference support. Its collections number 1.5 million volumes including 40,000 rare books, 2,000 manuscripts, 180,000 microfilm and -fiche, and over 300,000 commercial trade catalogs, dating from the 1850s and representing more than 30,000 companies.

Smithsonian museums on the National Mall are open 10:00 am to 5:30 pm daily (except December 25). Admission is free.

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